Defend our universities! Defend our unions! Stop the sacking of Robert Austin : Melbourne Indymedia

[Article by Lisa Farrance and Liz Thompson - both elected to the RMIT Branch Committee of the National Tertiary Education Union in 2004]

In April this year the Federal Government announced its intention to cut public funding to universities that fail to implement a range of industrial changes, including the forced introduction of individual contracts, harsher “performance management”, and the abolition of union representation on committees. These Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements (HEWRRs) not only pre-empt industrial relations legislation; they impose anti-collegiate conditions on the ways universities operate and reduce the independence of university teaching and research.

In this climate, university staff are coming under increasing pressure to restrict their commentary, teaching, research and industrial activities to those deemed acceptable to conservative governments. Academic staff are increasingly expected to “toe the management line” without question. And it’s this new climate within universities which is threatening the very concept of academic freedom and quality education.

A case in point is management’s political attack against an academic at RMIT University, Dr Robert Austin, a long-time academic union member. Currently threatened with the sack, Dr Austin’s case highlights the real threat posed by the Howard-Nelson agenda. In what ways?

Dr Austin is a Hispanic Studies academic employed by RMIT since February to run its Spanish language programs, and Latin American Studies from 2006. He is widely published and read, having produced seven books and with another three underway in a 15-year academic career. Even under the Federal Government’s strict new teaching guidelines, he’s a model teacher. His probation report of 28 September acknowledges “excellent” research performance and “commendable” teaching, leading to a “considerably more attractive” Spanish program. Enrolments have increased by over 20 per cent since his arrival. Dr Austin has already established staff-student exchange programs with prestigious Latin American and Spanish universities. He has just won five federally-funded student scholarships to Chile for 2006. And he has accepted an offer to become an Honorary Fellow of the University of Melbourne.

However, an alliance appears to have formed between right-wing Sun Herald polemicist Andrew Bolt and the new head of International and Community Studies. Both are of the view that industrial action in support of students in their opposition to (the misnamed) Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) is not a legitimate academic activity. They have both castigated Dr Austin’s re-scheduling of classes to allow students to attend the National Day of Action against VSU on 10 August, even when this had the almost-unanimous support of students, National Tertiary Education Union backing, and the knowledge of immediate management. Indeed the Vice Chancellor, Professor Margaret Gardener, is a public VSU opponent.

But the Head of School has gone one step further than Andrew Bolt. Using Bolt’s article as evidence for Dr Austin’s apparent “lack of collegiality”, the Head has recommended to the Vice Chancellor no less than termination of employment.

Moreover, the Head of School (HOS) and the relevant Pro Vice-Chancellor have used their positions to intimidate sessional teaching staff. On 30 September, the two managers saw fit to accost Robert Austin and a woman union representative who were enjoying coffee with sessional staff in a public café, off campus. The following week, the HOS compelled all Spanish sessional staff to attend a meeting on Dr Austin’s “collegiality” by issuing a “lawful directive”. Both probation meetings organised by the HOS were little more than an opportunity to launch a tirade of insults and provocations, and during the first to harass the woman union delegate.

We call on all staff, students and public education advocates to show their opposition to this attack on intellectual freedom and academic unionism. Management intimidation is not acceptable in any workplace. Let’s not allow this Nelson & Howard – “shock jock” – management alliance to dictate the model for future university administration.

Your response is urgent – the Vice Chancellor has now signed off on the recommendation for termination, to take effect in exactly 6 months. Please send your messages of opposition to this recommendation, and support for Dr Robert Austin, to:

• RMIT Vice Chancellor, Margaret Gardner on vc@rmit.edu.au
• With a copy to campaign coordinators liz.thompson@rmit.edu.au and l.farrance@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

For campaign updates and commentary see: http://defendrobert.blogspot.com